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Monday, June 18, 2012

Little girls flapper dress

There is an event on Governors Island that I look forward to every single year. It's the Jazz Age Lawn Party a.k.a. 1920's Flapper Picnic. Food and drinks are served, old cars displayed, hats, feather boas and vintage clothing sold and photo and people gawking opportunities abandon. Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra plays live music, to which many dance the charleston (or whatever they feel like and can). It's like a movie set without the crew or cameras. Everyone is dressed up - whether they are channeling flapper girl glamour, afterwork leisure or girl/boy on a holiday spirit.

I bought a dress at Mango a while ago that I decided to wear, G had a newsboy hat that looks great on him and could possibly go with the era, London got a white shirt with a moustache painted on and Lola's outfit completely fell out of my mind until two nights before the event! My favorite dresses these days are the kind that are made from a t-shirt on top and fabric sewn to the bottom. To make a matching outfit for Lola, I found London's grey undershirt, a yellow t-shirt I previously bought at a dollar store for "other sewing projects", a leftover gold sequin strip (from my sequin pumps I made) and some large loose sequins (also leftovers). Knowing that Lola will wear a dress only if it's twirly, I tricked her with the sequence strip and it worked! She said it was shiny and that nobody would have a dress like her (she was right :))))Nem regen vettem magamnak egy ruhat a Mangoban, ami kicsiket talan emlekeztet a korra, G-nek volt egy ideillo szalmakalapja, Londy kapott egy ujjatlan feher polot bajusszal kifestve, de Lola oltozekerol egeszen megfeledkeztem. Kedvenc ruhaim azok, amiknek a felso resze polobol van, es az allja anyag. Talaltam Londy szekrenyeben egy szurke alsopolot, kikotortam az anyagdoboz legalljarol egy sarga polot (amit meg mas projekthez vettem) es egy arany flitterpantot (amelyet a csillogos cipomhoz hasznaltam kb. egy honapja). Tudtam, hogy Lola nem lenne hajlando felvenni olyan ruhat, ami nem porog, igy a "csillog-villog" flitter reszet "adtam" el neki es mukodott! Azt mondta hogy ilyen csillog-villogos senkinek sem lesz es nem is volt ... :)))

I lay all my materials I collected on the table and played around with different designs at first.

Then I took a white printing paper, put it next to the tank top and drew a not too wide trapezoid. Voila! This is now a pattern for the skirt! I cut out the fabric about an inch and a half from the bottom. Do not throw away the bottom part! Gather it to make a ruffle strip ad place and sew it to the front of of the top in a U shape. Pin the trapezoid to the top from the outside and sew together. I was going to sew the sides, but my sewing machine completely stopped working in the meantime and I was getting more and more frustrated. This is when I coined the phrase "Sewing rage".

"Sewing Rage" as in an aggressive or angry behavior by a crafter/seamstress. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately sewing off the fabric in an unsafe or dangerous manner, or making threats (to the sewing machine. Ex: "I am going to toss you out of the terrace you piece of S). Sewing rage can lead to altercations with close family members and co-habitants. It can be thought of as an extreme case of aggressive sewing.